Politeness Strategies in the Context of Argument In Japanese Debate Shows

要旨

The purpose of this study is to find out politeness strategies in the discourse of argument situation in Japanese. Harmony is said to be a key concept to understand the Japanese culture. Harmony is one of the unique characteristics, the keynote, especially in the Japanese interaction. I have been studied the concept of harmony in Japanese culture (Shigemitsu, 2001, 2002). From the point of view of politeness theory, negative politeness strategies function to maintain harmonious atmosphere. This effect works as avoiding conflict among speakers. Besides the negative politeness strategies, some positive politeness strategies are seen when the participants employ positive politeness strategy 5 ‘Seek agreement’. This strategy is a way of claiming common ground with Hearer. Stressing Speaker’s agreement with Hearer, Speaker satisfies Hearer’s desire to be ‘right’. Thus they collaborate each other even they have different opinions and even during the argument, Japanese participants try to maintain harmonious atmosphere as possible. 1.

主題